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26-808: Brataualung language is a variety of what is generally classified as Gunai , which itself is classified by Robert M. W. Dixon as Muk-thang According to Alfred William Howitt , the Brataualung, together with the Braiakaulungl and Tatungalung all spoke dialects of Nulit and Nulit, Muk-thang and the Thangquai spoken by the Krauatungalung were mutually unintelligible. The Brataualung's traditional territories embraced some 1,900 square miles (4,900 km), extending eastwards from Cape Liptrap and Tarwin Meadows east to

52-427: A turndun ( bullroarer is heard, a signal for the women to leave and set up a new camp somewhere distantly. The elders and medicine men then get the boys to sit upright, and they are adorned with the tribal regalia of manhood, brow-band, a girdle round the waist, an apron and the like, while their heads were covered with an animal skin to stop them from seeing anything. Each bulluwrung then takes charge of his boy, and

78-487: A wurradhang (closed consultative assembly) to arrange the details of the forthcoming ceremony, the preceptors ( bulluwrung ) for the novices and the men who would orchestrate proceedings, collectively known as the kuringal . At around midday, the boys would begin to be decked out by their mothers and sisters with the body paint and feathered headdress proper to each tribe's customs, and, by late afternoon, would be led to sit on bark or leave-green boughs, heads bent down, in

104-677: A / , / i / , and / u / . Since the early 1990s, the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages (VACL) organisation, established the Yirruk-Tinnor Gunnai/Kŭrnai language program which focused on reviving and reclaiming the Gunnai language of Gippsland . Doris Paton, Coordinator of the Program and Lynnette Solomon-Dent, Language worker and consultant are involved in the program. They have been responsible for developing

130-432: A cleared space some distance from the ceremonial ground proper, each mother marking the spot with her yamstick, as songs were droned. At this stage they were now called dhurtungurrin . The men, likewise dressed out now arrive, at a trot, in single file, while beating the ground a piece of bark, and, forming a curved row before the novices, start a rhythmic beating of the ground in a wave from end to end and back. After this,

156-758: A number of resource materials to support and educate further knowledge of the Gunnai language and Culture. Lynnette Solomon-Dent co-wrote with Christina Eira the VACL Linguist, the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) Aboriginal Languages, cultures and reclamation in Victorian schools: standards P-10 and protocols and were involved in the VCE Revival and Reclamation Study. These teaching documents and resources are collectively used to educate school aged children P-10, VCE, higher learning institutions and

182-411: A portion of the deddelun to women nearby, encircle the boys, and toss the twigs and shorn boughs, with the women, over the boys' heads. The lads are then raised on men's shoulders, and breath in and out deeply as they sway, which earns them a congratulatory shout. Thereupon, they are led to the horseshoe enclosure, with women bringing with them the deddelun material. There the boys are obliged to lie on

208-947: Is an Australian Aboriginal dialect cluster of the Gunaikurnai people in Gippsland in south-east Victoria . Bidawal was either a divergent dialect or a closely related language. Gunai means 'man'. The language had no traditional name, but each of its dialects was referred to separately. In a 1996 report to the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages , Clark refers to five Gunaikurnai dialects: Brabralung , Braiakalung , Brataualung , Krauatungalung and Tatungalung . Gunaikurnai dialects have been confused with Muk-thang/ Bidawal ; there appear to be two distinct languages here, but it's not clear which variety belongs to which. Like other Victorian languages , Gunaikurnai allowed initial ⟨l⟩ in its words. However, it also allowed initial ⟨rr⟩ , and well as

234-606: Is one of the most inhospitable that I have seen in Australia. I have traversed its scrubs, mountains and swamps fo(u)r several times, and I observed little in it of living creatures excepting a few wallaby, snakes, leeches, mosquitoes and flies. Yet the Bidweli inhabited the few small open tracts in it.' The rites used by the Bidawal to negotiate the initiatory passage of young men into full adult status were described by R. H. Mathews . Among

260-580: The Aboriginal community members, to further their knowledge and allow community members to continue to educate future generations. Gunaikurnai was featured in a stage performance for the first known time in 2021, when Veronica Gorrie 's play "Nullung" ("paternal grandmother") was presented as a play reading by the Melbourne Theatre Company . A number of placenames in Gunaikurnai country feature

286-493: The Bidawal kwai-thang ("rough speech"). Bidawal land, basically tough sclerophyll woodlands and rainforest , extended over 7,000 square kilometres (2,700 sq mi), straddling the present borders of New South Wales and Victoria, from Green Cape , N.S.W., and Cape Everard, now Point Hicks . Inland to the west, it reached the area of Delegate and the headwaters of Cann and Bern rivers . Alfred William Howitt , in traversing its terrain, wrote as follows: This tract

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312-599: The Bidawal, this common rite was called the Dyerrayal . Given the relative scarcity of food resources to sustain incomers, the gathering Bidawal conducted their variation of the ceremony rapidly. The hosting Bidawal would prepare the ceremonial ground while messengers alerted distant tribes to present themselves for the occasion. On their arrival, the presiding elders would call out the prominent landscape features of each tribe as they settled variously on grounds cleared for their respective camps. The initiated men would then conduct

338-522: The abilities they showed in such tasks. Forging bonds with Braiakaulung men who had also experienced and adapted to the radically changed conditions on their lands, they formed groups that adopted European manners and lifestyles, including playing cards for money, drinking and smoking. Howitt described the passing of the Gippsland tribes in the following terms: 'the tide of settlement' with its 'line of blood', has advanced along an ever-widening line, breaking

364-465: The boys return with their mothers to their respective women's camps ( burrikin ). The day after, a body of men trail out to a site some 300–400 metres away, clear it and strew the ground of the resulting horseshoe arena with foliage. Towards sunset, the boys and women, at some distance, stand in the beating ground they occupied the day before, as the warriors return, armed with twigs or switches stripped of their leaves ( deddelun ), and, having distributed

390-703: The boys, and a bullroarer is swung. Each is then approached by an elder, rubbed with the bullroarer, and told, always by a man from a different tribe than his own, never to reveal the secrets he has observed, on pain of death. The boys are then led to the women's camp to endure an ordeal by smoke. The following day, the tribes dispersed, each taking a graduate of the ceremony from a neighbouring tribe, who then undergoes scarification and taught further traditions. The Bidawal may have been an aggregation of aboriginals from several tribes, each seeking refuge in this harsh piece of territory from tribal justice. Howitt, who raised this hypothesis, suggested that their land functioned like

416-507: The clusters ⟨gr⟩ ( ⟨kr⟩ ) and ⟨br⟩ ( ⟨pr⟩ ). This is quite unusual for an Australian language, and the same pattern was found in the Tasmanian languages across Bass Strait . Hercus (1969), states that plosives are conditionally voiced. Fesl also excludes / n̪ / in her thesis but notes that its absence may be due to a lack of data. / e / and / o / are said to occur less than /

442-414: The ending -munjie , meaning "place". This Australian Aboriginal languages -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Bidawal The Bidawal (also known as Bidhawal and Bidwell ) were an Australian Aboriginal tribe of Gippsland , Victoria . According to Alfred William Howitt , the Bidawal were composed of "refugees from tribes". The Bidawal language

468-472: The following days the men hunt, sometimes bringing the initiands with them, and allowing them to partake of choice morsels. Of an evening, theatrical scenarios mimicking acts like hunting for wombats or scaring possums out of trees take place. On the afternoon of the final day, the boys are made to sit, still with their head coverings, while a set of kuringal , their bodies greased and covered with charcoal stand off, with grotesque headwear, 20 paces in front of

494-430: The leaf beds, and, covered over with foliage, told to remain motionless and speechless. If they feel the call of nature, they must do it without moving. Fires are lit near their feet to keep them warm. Throughout the night, the women, followed by the men, circle round the enclosure singing a tune no one can understand, while beating the deddelun , the purpose being to lull the boys into a drowsy sleep. Just after daybreak

520-410: The leafy site is set on fire, until all, including the deddelun , is burnt off. The novices are then led off to a camp distant several miles away, where they must again observe silence, with heads bowed. Once separated from the women, they are given detailed knowledge of edible and taboo foods, but additional knowledge about plants is also provided by the womenfolk when they return to that company During

546-583: The maritime outlet of the Merriman Creek . Its northern boundary reached inland to Mirboo . It included what are now Port Albert and Wilsons Promontory . The Brataualung are divided into several subgroupings or hordes . It is possible that the first contacts may have begun when whaling camps were established in the 1820s, in the vicinity of Wilsons Promontory and Corner Inlet . But the first stable encounters are dated to 1841 when Europeans first began colonising inland Brataualung territory. Relations from

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572-432: The native tribes with its first waves overwhelming their wrecks with its flood-. It..will (not) cease until the last tribe has been broken and overwhelmed.' Source: Tindale 1974 , p. 203 Gunai language The Gunaikurnai or Gunai/Kurnai ( / ˈ ɡ ʌ n aɪ k ɜːr n aɪ / GUN -eye-kur-nye ) language, also spelt Gunnai , Kurnai , Ganai, Gaanay, or Kurnay / ˈ k ɜːr n aɪ / KUR -nye )

598-429: The start appear to have been quite amicable, with the Brataualung taking up jobs with settlers in exchange for food and merchandize. In July 1843 relations may have soured when several whites, possibly fugitives from Van Diemen's Land , who had set up shop as traders in grog at Port Albert killed some Brataualung men. The natives retaliated by targeting and killing a prominent local stockholder. The reprisal that followed

624-558: Was either a dialect of or closely related to the Kurnai language , which was spoken by the Kurnai tribes to the west. However, the Bidawal dialect had borrowed a number of words referring to mammals, birds and celestial bodies from Ngarigo , as well as a smaller number of words from Thawa and Dhudhuroa . The Bidawal called their own dialect muk-thang ("good speech"), and that of the neighbouring Kurnai gūnggala-dhang . The Kurnai, however, called their own dialect muk-thang , and that of

650-577: Was estimated that they had been reduced to some 50 people, camping in stations along Merrimans Creek, Coady Vale, Erin Vale and Port Albert. To survive they took on jobs, stripping bark from trees and harvesting potatoes on land occupied by squatters'. The advent of the Victorian gold rush in 1851-2 drained all available white hands from the local economy, and pastoralists designed to offer employment as stockmen, reapers and sheep herders, surprising their employees by

676-409: Was severe: local squatters mustered to undertake a vigilante raid that led to substantial loss of life among these tribesmen, and put an end to the apparently amicable relations that had existed to that point in time. Loss of the lands that furnished them with food, and the impact of ravaging diseases introduced by white settlers led, furthermore, to a drastic loss of life. Five years later, in 1848, it

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